ffmpeg shell commands cheatsheet

ffmpeg-cheatsheet.md

Cut video/audio file

from start to the specified time (-t) parameter:

ffmpeg -t 00:03:59.700 -i video.mp4 -c copy cut.mp4

from the specified time (-ss) parameter to the end:

ffmpeg -ss 00:01:00.700 -i video.mp4 -c copy cut.mp4

both -ss and -t parameter:

ffmpeg -ss 1:00 -i video.mp4 -to 2:00 -c copy cut.mp4
ffmpeg -ss 1:00 -i video.mp4 -to 2:00 -c copy -copyts cut.mp4

#1 cut from 1:00 to 3:00 (of original).
͏#2 cut from 1:00 to 2:00 intended (adding -copyts to keep original timestamps unmodified).

Adding -c copy is needed to ensure you're not hurting the quality of your file further by transcoding,
since you're keeping the same format.

Doing -c copy will copy both the audio codec (acodec) and the video codec (vcodec)

• -c copy is the same as -acodec copy -vcodec copy
• -c:a copy is the same as -acodec copy
• -c:v copy is the same as -vcodec copy

And of course you can specify a codec e.g. -vcodec libx264 or -c:v libx264

The -c stands for codec. You can alternatively write -codec e.g. -codec:a copy.
And if you don't specify e.g. -acodec copy or -acodec blahblah or -codec:a ..., then it will pick some default codec.

You can also say -vn for no video so it doesn't copy video. Or -an for no audio.

Also:
The syntax of -acodec and -vcodec is deprecated now.
And it's recommended to use the syntax of -c:a and -c:v (which are aliases for -codec:a and -codec:v)